Rural Mental Health (RMH) Project Final Dissemination Event 21st of June 2022

We are delighted to invite you to the “Rural Mental Health Project Final Dissemination Event – Towards rural areas that foster mental health and wellbeing”, which will take place on 21 June, at the European Parliament (hybrid format). The event is co-hosted by MEP Maria Walsh and MEP Cyrus Engerer.

Rural Mental Health Project

The EU funded Rural Mental Health (RMH) Project aims to redress the inequality and imbalance between mental health provision in rural and urban areas and to improve awareness and prevention of mental health issues in rural areas.

The project consortium brings together partners from Belgium, France, Finland, Poland, UK, alongside the European network Mental Health Europe, with expertise in the fields of training, social inclusion, mental health and rural issues.

Over the last few years, partners in the project have developed informational, contextual and background information on mental health issues in rural areas and the need for basic care provision via several different community-led avenues. This includes training modules on basic care provision, in a bid to help rural educators, volunteers, employers and other actors to understand the incidence of mental health problems better and be able to identify them and reach out to those involved.

About the Event

The conference aims to foster the dissemination of these resources and to raise awareness of why the project outputs are necessary for the project countries and across Europe. This will trigger a policy-oriented discussion on the need to break the stigma around mental health, act on prevention and ensure that vulnerable groups (such as young people or people living in rural areas) can have a support network and can access good quality, affordable and accessible mental health services. Another objective of the meeting will be to reflect on how to realise a transformation in rural politics and economics to improve mental health.

The event is targeted at different stakeholders (policymakers, service providers, non-governmental organisations) active in the field of rural areas, mental health and youth.

Event Agenda (All times CET)

09:00 – 09:10 Welcome and setting the scene – MEP Maria Walsh

09:10 – 09:20 Introduction to the RMH Project – Thomas DEPARDIEU, Afeji Director of the Hainaut-Cambrésis territory

09:20 – 09:35 Brief presentation of RMH project main outputs – Klaudia Liszewska, Project Officer, The Polish Farm Advisory

09:35 – 10:20 Roundtable discussion on policy implications of the RMH Project

• Claudia Marinetti, Director, Mental Health Europe
• Elena Schubert, Policy Officer – Deputy Equality Coordinator for DG AGRI
• David Lamb, team leader, European Network for Rural Development
• Manuel Delgado, Senior Policy Advisor, European Employers’ Group of Professional Agricultural Organisations (GEOPA)

10:20 – 10:50 Question and Answers

10:50 – 11:00 Closing remarks – MEP Cyrus Engerer

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